The only way to heal the pain which will not heal itself is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness heals… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
We attach our feelings to the moment when we were hurt, endowing it with immortality. And we let it assault us every… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving is an affair strictly between a victim and a victimizer. Everyone else should step aside...The worst wounds I ever felt were… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When we forgive someone, we do not forget the hurtful act, as if forgetting came along with the forgiveness package, the way… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiveness is God's invention for coming to terms with a world in which people are unfair to each other and hurt each… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
With a little time, and a little more insight, we begin to see both ourselves and our enemies in humbler profiles. We… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When you give up vengeance, make sure you are not giving up on justice. The line between the two is faint, unsteady,… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
You and I were created for joy, and if we miss it we miss the reason for our existence. If our joy… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
You can forgive someone almost anything. But you cannot tolerate everything...We don't have to tolerate what people do just because we forgive… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Nothing is more private than a woman's body; it is her physical, emotional, and moral citadel. She cannot be free at all if she… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
...Forgiving is not having to understand. Understanding may come later, in fragments, an insight here and a glimpse there, after forgiving. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The God who has the whole world in his hands has grace for the whole world in his heart. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Nobody sees reality whole; we all need others to show us the parts of it that they see better than we do. Nobody sees… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
I have discovered that most people who tell me that they cannot forgive a person who wronged them are handicapped by a mistaken understanding… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Spoken forgiveness, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not demand the response we want. I mean that when we tell people… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
We feel properly embarrassed when we are caught doing something that makes us look inept, knuckleheaded, or inappropriate. Maybe the difference is this: we… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When I feel the joy of receiving a gift my heart nudges me to join creation's ballet, the airy dance of giving and receiving,… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wrong they do. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Gratitude is the best feeling I would ever have, the ultimate joy of living. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image